Why I Refused To Sign Affidavit

The 24-year-old student of the Gbewaa Teacher Training College, Pusiga, in the Upper East Region, Iddrisu Evans, has disclosed that he refused to sign the affidavit of the Electoral Commission with a clear conscience.

He told DAILY GUIDE in an interview that despite the acts of intimation, he refused to allow himself be cowed into submission to sign documents whose contents were at variance with his conduct.

According to him, the information contained in the 19 documents submitted to him for signing at the residence of the District Officer of the EC, Bismarck Nteh, did not represent his views but cooked views of someone for parochial interest.

The former Temporal Booth Nyayeri Polling Station Presiding Officer insisted that he did the right thing by declining to sign the documents.

He promised to go all lengths to defend his stance stating that his contract with the EC expired right after December 7, 2012.

Taking DAILY GUIDE through bits of what culminated into the current state of affairs he disclosed that earlier last week he received a call from Mr. Nteh inviting him to come and complete some vital documents.

He was sceptical about the said documents since he was not a staff of the EC but upon second thought told him he had no means to travel from Pusiga to Gambaga.

The district officer was said to have persuaded Zakari Iddrisu alias Alonga to pick him on a motorbike to Gambaga for this exercise which he obliged.

On arrival he was taken to the house of the EC officer when prior to his invitation he was told the documents were in the office. This aroused his suspicion.

Despite these lingering doubts, he finally met with the EC district officer who brought out a pile of documents and asked him to append his signature to authenticate them.

“Knowing my rights I refused and demanded I read through to understand the contents before signing which he insistently refused,” he remarked.

After several minutes of hesitations he told DAILY GUIDE that he was allowed 30 minutes to go through the documents and it was there he realized the EC was up to something mischievous.

He took the documents out, made copies and lodged an official complaint with the police since in his view it constituted criminality and returned them unsigned to the EC officer.

Mr. Iddrisu said after this, New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters got to know about it and started massing up to ascertain the veracity of his claim. He then gave copies of the affidavit to them.

“I feel happy doing the right thing and have no doubts in my mind about a clear conscience,” he remarked.

It would be recalled that NPP supporters in the Nalerigu-Gambaga constituency of the Northern Region prevented attempts by the EC to authenticate affidavits relating to the disputed 2012 general elections.

The outcome of the 2012 General Elections is being challenged at the Supreme Court, but the EC is alleged to be employing various tactics to absolve itself of any wrongdoing to back its claims that the polls were free and fair.

According to the defeated NPP parliamentary candidate for the area, Peter Wuni, the EC tried securing signatures of presiding officers of four polling stations whose results were annulled on the day of the election for over voting.

He told DAILY GUIDE that the EC, in line with its laid down rules, annulled the results of Nyayeri, Kulgona, Bomni and Langbinsi Police Station polling stations, citing over voting.

The cover of the EC, he observed, was blown when Evans was invited by the District Electoral Officer, Bismarck Nteh, to sign an affidavit.

According to Evans, the contents were in sharp contravention of what they were taught during their training, insisting he would not allow himself be used for purposes he had little or no knowledge about.

The Nalerigu Police confirmed the incident and disclosed to the paper that the matter was still under investigations and anyone found culpable would be dealt with according to the law.

When reached on phone Mr. Nteh declined to comment but indicated that he was awaiting the outcome of police investigations to establish if what he had done constituted a crime or otherwise.